A former Montgomery County teacher has been acquitted of child abuse, the second time the instructor has been found not guilty of mistreating students in her class. A Montgomery County Circuit Court jury in Rockville on Thursday found 36-year-old Susan Burke not guilty of choking and scratching two of her kindergarten students. The incidents happened during the 2009-2010 school year at Greencastle Elementary School.
In October, Burke was acquitted of 10 counts of second-degree assault after a jury determined she didn’t choke her students at Greencastle during the following school year, when she taught first grade at the Silver Spring school.
Seth Zucker, spokesman for the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office, wrote in an email that “we respect the verdict of the jury” and declined to comment further.
Defense attorney Todd Mohink said he thought the jury “made the right decision” and may have been swayed by “the amount of inconsistencies” in testimony from the students.
Both juries heard from students who allegedly experienced and witnessed the abuse, but they were unable to recall many details about the incidents.
Mohink asked a boy who was 6 years old at the time of the alleged abuse and took the witness stand Monday to demonstrate Burke’s actions.
“How did she do it?” Mohink asked. “Can you show me?”
“I’m not sure,” said the boy, who is now 8 and in second grade.
Like students who testified at the first trial, the boy said he could not remember what sparked the choking incidents or how many times they happened.
Prosecutors had argued that Burke intentionally harmed her students as a means of discipline when they misbehaved.
Burke was “a woman who could not control her temper,” prosecutor Karla Smith told jurors during this week’s trial.
The defense countered that the students’ claims against Burke were the only evidence against her, and the children’s statements were made in response to leading and suggestive questions from parents, investigators and school administrators.
“Everyone jumped on the bandwagon,” Mohink said.
Burke could have faced up to 30 years in prison if she had been convicted of the child abuse charges.
